Building Your Brand Surviving In A Digital World

There is no doubt that online or digital promotion is the method that so many small business owners and entrepreneurs use to help bolster their marketing efforts. However, it is very important for businesses that have a local cliental to use offline or traditional promotional methods as well.
One of the easiest and best ways to help boost your business brand is by using offline promotional merchandise. Traditional print based advertising and offline brand awareness should still have a part in your marketing mix, even in a digital age.


Why Promotional Merchandise still works 

Promotional merchandise still works because you are capturing an audience before they decide to make a decision. Other forms of marketing are usually focused on the later stages of a purchase decision i.e if someone is searching for a product on Google they are in the process of making a decision. A major advantage of a printed product is you are not paying each time you are listed somewhere or each time somebody sees your brand so you know 100% what your investment is and promotional merchandise is known to have a long life span. Promotional merchandise can be much more valuable than other forms of traditional media. The equivalent cost per impression of a promotional pens and mugs compared to Radio and Newspaper advertising is as little as £0.001 per impression. The key to promotional merchandise is that it gets your brand out to a large audience, improves brand recognition and brand recall.


Brand Recognition Brand Recognition 

– Brand recognition relates to a customer’s ability to associate your brand with a particular product through brand alone. Having a strong brand makes selling your products and much easier long term. Built on both reputation and awareness a strong brand will be associated with a product example, Coke (Cola), ASOS (online shopping) Compare the Market(Insurance).

The model of Compare the Market and ASOS are especially interesting as they continue to focus on their brand rather than the service they offer. Compare the Market spend millions each year via Googles paid advertising network Google Adwords estimated to be up to £4million. This is mainly to protect the brand and avoid others from using the brand for their own gain.

The insurance market is extremely competitive and can be as much as £20 per click to advertise online through Google Adwords. This points to one of the reasons why Compare the Market focus on a brand campaign. Compare the Market had a genius idea to build off the back of a play on words with their brand name, creating the phrase Compare the Meerkat. From the Compare the Meerkat brand came characters associated with the brand and television adverts. Compare the Market created their own promotional products in the form of the popular TV characters associated with the brand. Each form of insurance allows you to get a different promotional toy, which encourages repeat custom, which is key in a competitive market.


Targeting and Making the most of your brand 

One of the reasons online marketing is more popular these days is the level of trackability however it is possible to track the success of offline marketing by using a phone number specifically for your products. The key is to use your promotional merchandise wisely, whether it is choosing the correct merchandise to attract delegates to your stand at a conference or giving out luxury promotional merchandise to the right people to make you memorable in what can be a competitive environment.


Choosing Modern Promotional Products

 Statistics suggest promotional USB sticks are one of the most popular promotional products around. The reason they are popular is a company can put any data they want onto a device. An example using a promotional USB stick is the launch of a new property development. A branded USB stick can include a promotional video, CGIs of the property and exclusive information.

How Offline Promotional Merchandise Builds Up Your Brand The key is to capture all available traffic, online and offline. It is true that a higher percentage of users are going online, however an audience still exists offline and using promotional merchandise it is possible to target this audience.
Daisy Burgess - Marketing and Advertising Blogger for Expo-Promo Exhibition Giveaways